Federal budget's second-parent leave formula favours men over women

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The federal budget might have been sold on its female-friendly features, but business experts say it still falls short in solving the wage gap because the formula it uses to calculate employment insurance still favours men over women.

Under the government's new EI Parental Sharing Benefit, a child's second caregiver will now have the option to take five weeks of "use-it-or-lose-it" time off work, if the child's other parent takes a leave.

How much that second parent earns while on leave is predicated around his or her average insurable earnings, but women stand to make a few hundreds dollars less on average because they typically earn 87 cents for every dollar made by a man, said Jennifer Robson, an assistant professor of political management at Carleton University....